It’s long been a thought of mine that golf should have been moving towards a mixed team event.
I’ve written about it often enough in this column, that’s for sure!
Curling’s Continental Cup works brilliantly with that format and there’s absolutely no reason for it not being the same in golf.
And if ever there was a time to seriously progress it, surely it’s now.
We’re about to get a Presidents Cup that is likely to stretch the definition of the word ‘competitive’ to breaking point.
In the best part of three decades, the international team have only beaten America once.
So cool putting this thing together with the @IntlTeam. I'm sure they weren't prepared for any of this but they were really great sports! @PresidentsCup
Credit: Earth, Wind & Fire pic.twitter.com/Ly1vYottn4
— Sam Harrop (@sam_golf) September 22, 2022
Yes, this week’s group of men will be hugely motivated after they lost a lot of their best players to the LIV Tour but there’s a reason that the States are 1/6 with the bookmakers.
The credibility of the event is in grave danger. It actually already was.
It’s too early to tell whether it will be the same in the Ryder Cup.
The fact that it’s mostly the old guard who have defected in Europe is a cause for optimism.
But if the Presidents Cup could lead the way in their next competition in two years, it could change team golf for good.
And what a brilliant marketing exercise it would be for the traditional tours to bring women’s golf into the fold.
The latest battleground in golf is over world ranking points.
The argument that the LIV guys have made their bed so they can lie in it has a lot of appeal.
But the reality is that some very good golfers are now on that tour and, even though there will probably need to be more water passing under the bridge before it happens, I do think that they will eventually get recognised.
But the ranking points should always be weighted towards 72-hole events.
Nobody will have been surprised that Roger Federer has decided to call it a day.
As fantastic a player as he still is, he’s 41. With injuries taking their toll, it was the right decision to say ‘no more’.
The guy has been a PR dream from beginning to end so finishing off by playing doubles with his greatest ever rival, Rafa Nadal, in the Laver Cup is the perfect full stop.
Ready to take on the World 👊🤳 @CasperRuud98 @andy_murray @DjokerNole @cam_norrie @steftsitsipas pic.twitter.com/tXeHuQKVvi
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) September 21, 2022
That really is the golden ticket for tennis fans!
I’ve been to Wimbledon and the French Open and seen Nadal and Novak Djokovic and I’ve watched Andy Murray in the Davis Cup.
But I’d have loved to have seen Federer play.
When people say ‘it’s not just what you win, it’s how you do it’ he’s the ultimate example of that.
Whatever the sport, the people who make it look so easy and effortless are the ones who are in a special category.
Glenn Howard is the first name I think of in curling in that regard.
He was our coach and lessons he gave me stayed with me long after he stopped working with us.
Glenn is the sort of person you always wanted to impress when you went on the ice.
It has never been about a power game for him and the fact that he’s still going strong in the Grand Slams in his 50s says it all.
He’s even outlasted the great Roger Federer!
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